


Don't Save The Citizen

by Miss_Dyana



Series: They Don't Know About Us [1]
Category: Sky High (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Fighting, Fluff, High School, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, Layla loses control, Non-Graphic Violence, Post-Canon, Secret Relationship, Superheroes, Superpowers, Villains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-25 22:21:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18583750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Dyana/pseuds/Miss_Dyana
Summary: Everybody in Sky High knows that Layla Williams and Will Stronghold are invincible at Save the Citizen — they're the perfect team. That doesn't mean that people don't try to beat them though. This time, it's Rachel Munroe's turn, with her powers on air.And she picked Warren Peace to be her partner.





	Don't Save The Citizen

Virtually everybody in Sky High knew that Layla Williams and Will Stronghold were invincible, or at the very least, yet unbeaten, at Save the Citizen. Sure, they weren’t the first with that title, but there was no doubt, in anybody’s mind, that they were the best heroes possible — that, despite Layla having proudly decided to remain in the Hero Support class. Even with their constant victories, they graciously left the floor for others if they wanted to fight, and never picked their own adversaries, unless they had been asked to.

Playing against them, rather than about competition, had become all about progressing, getting better as a hero, and understanding how to find your enemy’s weak points. They were always nice and helpful after defeating their previous adversaries, too.

Basically, they were pure hero material, to a point that was almost annoying.

Scratch that, to a point that a lot of people found it annoying.

Of course, there were people who genuinely wanted to kick them off of their pedestal. Some had already tried, and some had yet to make their move.

Rachel Munroe was one of them.

She’d been watching for weeks, assessing the situation, carefully examining their every move, until she had come up with a plan that she thought she could make work.

Of course, Will Stronghold wasn’t a problem. Sure, the kid was impressive, and his cleverness when he faced with challenges during a fight was something to take into account — something she was glad she had had the opportunity of seeing, because he certainly didn’t display it the rest of the time. However, she was convinced she could take him. She wasn’t born yesterday either, after all.

No, the biggest unknown factor was Layla Williams. She wasn’t the one who did most of the fighting, standing back, watching, careful, ready to jump in at any point to support Will. Yet her powers most certainly weren’t any less impressive as her partner’s, but that was the problem.

Rachel had no idea just how good nor how strong she was.

She had come up with a plan, sure, having found in the rest of the school the perfect person to take down plant girl, but Layla was still the main reason why she wasn’t a hundred percent sure she would win.

She hated that, but at the same time, there was a nice thrill to it.

“Anyone want to have a go at Williams and Stronghold?” Coach Boomer’s voice was vaguely annoyed. Seriously, no one in school would have been surprised to discover the guy was secretly a Super Villain, based on how much he seemed to dislike heroes winning.

“Here, Coach!” Rachel yelled, standing up.

He turned to look at her, then gave her an appreciative nod. Girl had arrived in the school recently, made her way straight to the Hero Class, and you know what? He still entertained the hope  _ someone _ could take the two, and she was as good a bet of anyone else.

“You go, Munroe! We need a second—”

“I’m calling Warren Peace!”

There was a shuddering silence after her announcement, everyone staring as Warren stood up, slowly. Even though he was now regularly seen talking to other students and seemed to be on, if not friendly, at least neutral terms with both Layla and Will, he still had the reputation of someone you absolutely shouldn’t mess with. The Coach allowed a dangerous laugh to escape his lips. Oh, he wanted to see that.

Everyone missed the brief, worried exchange of glances between Warren and Layla.

It was time to fight.

* * *

If you asked Layla what her main asset was, she would no doubt have answered you it was how focused and calm she could remain, how in control she was. She would define herself as being the opposite of Will, who, well, had the tendency of using his emotions as a fuel to fight. It worked out rather well for the two of them, so she couldn’t say she minded. In fact, that was exactly why they made the best of team and the best of friends.

Friends, most definitely, though half of the school probably thought they dated. Well, they had, but it had only lasted a couple of weeks before they came down from the high induced by the whole Royal Pain situation, and realized for Layla that she just wasn’t in love with Will anymore — funny how that can go — and for Will, that while he  _ loved  _ Layla, there was nothing remotely romantic about his feelings.

But this was  _ not  _ the right moment to think about that, even if she needed to convince herself that they had a chance to win this.

She didn’t know Rachel that well just yet and hadn’t particularly marked her down as a threat, since the black-haired girl was rather discreet, however she had seemed… surprisingly confident earlier. Which was not exactly reassuring.

Layla exchanged a quick look with Will. The boy looked rather relaxed. Some times she appreciated the natural assurance he had gained once he had gotten his powers, others she wished he would take things more seriously.

Like right now, for example.

Layla did  _ not  _ like to lose.

She talked a lot about how competition was bad and everything, and she  _ firmly _ believed that. She thought the system at Sky High was deeply flawed, and currently her plan for the future was to become a teacher here and try to change it.

Still, she couldn’t stand the idea of losing.

She watched Warren and Rachel get in place, facing them, having put on the suits the villains always wore. She wondered how Warren felt about it. She knew for a fact that he hated being treated as a villain, even if it wasn’t in direct reference to his father. She couldn’t read it on his face though, as he was wearing his impenetrable scowl. She thought she’d gotten better at that, but apparently it turned out that he could very much hide it from her if he chose to. She felt a painful squeeze in her chest at that thought.

He glared at her and Will darkly, and Rachel quickly moved towards him, pulling him down by grabbing his shoulder and whispering quickly in his ear.

He seemed to listen, and then she pulled her hand away with a yelp, the sight almost getting a smile out of Layla.

Yeah, Warren didn’t take too kindly to being touched without a warning.

“Stronghold, Williams,” Coach Boomer said. “You’re the heroes. You have three minutes to immobilize your opponents, and save the citizen.” They all knew the rules, obviously, but he still had to remind them at the beginning of every fight. “And… BATTLE!”

There wasn’t a second lost then. With the assurance given by months of practice, Will dove forward.

That was their most ‘basic’ move. With his ability to fly, he could just go get the citizen — and then it wouldn’t take too long for him and Layla to figure out a way to immobilize the villains, especially with the help of her plants. It was rare for people to be able to stop him for that first one.

This was one of those times though. Right as he was nearing the citizen, a strong gusts of wind suddenly pushed him backwards, sending him against the limits of the arena, at the bottom of which he fell down with a grunt.

Layla immediately turned towards Rachel. She was grinning, hands up, eyes shining in an unnatural way. She looked like she had already won. It was only seconds before Will was up next to Layla again, and that did make her smile waver. Layla gave Will a nod, and it was her turn to use her powers, moving her hands just a little. A giant root came out from seemingly nowhere, and Will easily jumped on to it, wrapping his arms around it as it carried him towards the citizen again.

Rachel’s wind slowed Layla down a little, but it wouldn’t be enough to stop her completely, which the black-haired teenager seemed to realize soon. That was exactly the type of info she would have liked to have earlier — but it would be fine. After all, it was exactly for that kind of reasons that she had picked her partner.

What on  _ earth _ was he doing, by the way?

“Peace!” she shouted, mostly focused on her fight against Layla’s power, knowing that there was no use trying to make Will fall with his super-strength at work. “The hell are you waiting for?!”

Warren hesitated one second too long.

“Get your head in the game, Peace!” Coach Boomer shouted from his chair.

Shit. He really, really didn’t want to do that.

He lit up both of his arms, and threw two fireballs at Layla’s plant.

He hadn’t been ready for her scream, that sounded like a scream of pain, and for a second he almost ran up to her to make sure she was okay, but he couldn’t do that as Will, letting go of the root, started running towards him, almost managing to punch him back before Rachel’s wind caught him again. This time she apparently decided on keeping him dangling in the air, where he remained for a moment, powerless, with no support for him to escape her. She shot Warren a grin, but her victory was short-lived. Layla had already fully recovered, and wasn’t out of plants just like she had hoped.

Under Will, a tree grew up, and as soon as he got hold of it, it wasn’t hard for him to get himself out of Rachel’s clutches.

By then though, half of the time was already gone.

The time had stopped moving in the arena, people had stopped breathing. This was… This was  _ not _ high-school level. They were seeing a true heroes-villains fight unfolding in front of them, and no one dared making a sound, even when, for a brief moment, there was no movement down there.

Layla and Will looked at each other once more, before she cocked her head towards Rachel. He understood immediately, something that came from their years of friendship and months of fighting side by side.

Layla was right, of course. Rachel had planned things one way — her against Will, Layla against Warren.

They had to switch things up.

Without a warning, they both started running opposite ways. Will straight towards Warren, but this time, before Rachel could do anything to intercept him, Layla was casting her plants at her. For one second, everything seemed to go just as planned.

Layla was easily one of the best students of the school in terms of control of her ability. When she was there, Gwen had probably been better at her than that, even during her first high school, but Layla could still do basically whatever she wanted with her powers, which was why she had no trouble protecting herself from the wind with leaves in front of her, and she knew she’d get her branches around Rachel sooner rather than later.

Well, that’s what she had expected, at least.

With her powers, it had made sense to her that Rachel would be specialized in long-distance fighting and not so much in hand-to-hand fighting.

So she had most definitely not expected Rachel to surge through her leaves and to kick her backwards, immediately sending her in Warren’s direction with the help of her wind, simultaneously grabbing Will with it once more. This time she wasn’t fast enough for him not to be able to catch some of Layla’s plants, now all over the ground. She grimaced when he escaped her once more. She had never used her powers that much in one fight, and she was starting to feel exhausted.  _ Shit _ . She didn’t want to lose.

“One minute left!” Coach Boomer miraculously remembered to shout, going mostly ignored by his students, and in fact even earning himself a couple of “shhh” coming from the bleachers.

They had no time to waste, Layla decided. They still had to immobilize Rachel and Warren, and she had  _ no idea _ how they’d do that for him. She didn’t want Will to knock him unconscious, and as long as he was here, she wouldn’t be able to use her plants on Rachel either. She could of course bury him under enough wood and leaves so it would take him some time to push through, but that sounded extremely dangerous, and she liked to keep things safe.

Still, she started developing her plants and they soon were creeping all over the arena, covering it entirely in some sort of moving, swarming nest, circling around the ankles of the three others, only loosely around Will to make sure he could stay on the ground but would be able to move.

It was when she attempted to make Rachel fall down that things took a turn for the worst. The second Rachel started staggering, waving her arms to keep some balance and starting to use her wind for herself as opposed to against Will, Warren threw a fireball while setting himself on fire, effectively burning everything that was around him.

Laya should have known. She should have expected it. She knew the connection she shared with her plants, the pain she would undoubtedly feel if they were hurt. She shouldn’t have used that many at the same time.

It would take her a long time to stop blaming herself for it all.

She lost it. She had never even thought it was possible for her. It had never,  _ ever _ happened before. Not even in anger.

But there was  _ pain _ ,  _ everywhere _ , and  _ everything hurt _ , and it needed to  _ stop _ .

Now.

Will couldn’t afford to turn around to see what was happening, even as the plants stopped moving and seemed to lose their life somehow. They had less than fifteen seconds left — it was now or never.

Grabbing the carpet of roots created by Layla, he used his strength to shake it, once, and the second a surprised Rachel did fall backwards, he was up in the air.

_ Oh, no. _ No, she wasn’t letting him do that — not when she’d come this far! Rachel rose a hand to stop—

But Will hadn’t let go of the roots as he’d jumped up. Its move as he ripped it off the ground had her rolling off of it, and when he landed back down right as the alarm rang out, he pulled it back on her, effectively trapping it underneath it.

The crowd erupted in cheers, and for once, Coach Boomer actually sounded happy to announce Layla and Will’s victory.

Layla didn’t hear any of it.

She was just regaining control, just understanding again what was happening around her, in front of her, what she was doing. Warren had set her plants on fire and then—  _ Warren _ .

Her plants moved away from him, freeing his throat and his face, allowing him to breathe, and he fell to the ground, choking. They had been tied so tight around him that his fire didn’t get the oxygen it needed to burn, she realized, absolutely horrified.

“Warren!” she cried out, running towards him, going completely unnoticed underneath the crowd’s shouts.

It had only lasted a few seconds. It wouldn’t have been enough to kill him, and she knew that but it killed her to think she had hurt him. She didn’t— She didn’t hurt people. It wasn’t her power. She never even knocked them unconscious, as Will did sometimes. And to think she had hurt  _ him _ , of all people…

Her hands founds his shoulders and Warren looked up. For a second, his eyes met hers, doing his best to reassure her in that silent way, and he wrapped his fingers around her wrist, squeezing it tightly.

Then, he let go, and he moved away. She winced when she saw his hand rubbing his throat in discomfort, but she didn’t get more time to get close to him, to ask him if he was okay before Will lifted her up, flying through the gymnasium, under the other students’ acclamation. He’d taken the time to free Rachel first, because  _ of course he had _ , and she watched them, arms folded, frowning.

Well, they’d won this time, she decided with a smirk. Barely.

Next time, she’d be ready.

But when her eyes met Layla’s, she knew she wouldn’t be the only one.

* * *

Technically, she should have waited until the end of class. That was their agreement, and Layla was good at respecting agreements.

But today, she grabbed him and dragged him into an empty classroom.

“Hey, what d’you think you’re…”

Before he could continue, the door was closed behind him. For once, she figured they could afford it. People wouldn’t think much about it — after all, it was very “like her” to worry about someone she had injured, even if it was during Save the Citizen.

“Listen, I’m—”

“You’re not fine!” Layla snapped, pushing him on to a table so he would be at her level as she lifted his head carefully, grimacing at the marks she’d left around his neck.

Warren finally stopped moving, grimacing ever so slightly when her fingers traced said marks. Layla closed her eyes briefly, undoing one of her bracelets to set it on the table with trembling fingers and, under Warren’s surprised eyes, one of the beads grew into a plant.

So  _ that _ was how she was doing it at Save the Citizen? Well, shit. He had never even noticed her doing that, and yet he paid  _ very close _ attention to her when she was playing.

He watched her cutting leaves and pushing some sort of ointment in her hands before raising them towards his neck. He caught her wrists before she could do anything. She was shaking in a way he had never seen of her. She barely tried to fight him before breaking down into tears.

“Hey, hey,” he said, trying to hide his discomfort at seeing her cry. “I’m fine. I’m okay.” He didn’t know what to do with this. His hands travelled on her arms to settle on her shoulders, attempting to carry out his emotions and his reassurance that way.

“Stop  _ saying that! _ ” she protested between sobs. “You’re  _ not _ !” Even now, as he was trying to comfort her — when she should be the one doing the comforting, dammit! — she could tell his voice was hoarse, that it had a hard time coming out.

She hated it.

He allowed her to cry for a moment, before she could regain her usual control. Sniffing, but her hands still again, she moved once more and this time, he let her take care of his neck, her soft hands and the fresh whatever-that-was soothing his skin.

“Aren’t you giving out some precious informations to the opposite team?” he tried to joke, pointing at the plant on the table.

Layla chuckled through her tears.

“Stop trying to make me feel better, Warren,” she said softly. “I know I fucked up.”

He rose an eyebrow at her cursing, and his hands tentatively went to her waist, slipping under her shirt and brushing against her skin. She drew in a shivering breath and let him pull her closer, standing between his legs.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered when he put his forehead against her.

“’s okay, hippie. I know you didn’t mean to do that.”

“But it’s not okay, Warren,” she sighed. “I don’t want to hurt people. Ever.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want it to happen again.”

This time, Warren didn’t say anything, wrapping his arms around her and resting his head on top of hers.

“Yeah, I know that too. But it’s not a bad thing, to know your limits. We all have to find them, here. It means you know where you still have work to do. Even for you, there’ll always be things you have a hard time doing.”

Layla let herself relax against his broad, warm chest. She felt guilty for letting herself be comforted when he was the one who had just been hurt, and she could only guess he was talking of experience. Except that his fire would do much more lasting damage than her plants — or, well, than the ones she was carrying on herself in general.

There was still so much she didn’t know about him.

So much she wanted to know.

Warren kissed her forehead.

She smiled.

Then he moved to her closed eyes. Then to her cheeks. And then, finally, he kissed her. He was always behaving with such restraint, when he started kissing her, like he was afraid he would burn himself.

_ Or like he would burn her… _

She kept the kiss soft and gentle, following his jawline with her fingertips, but wasn’t too surprised when he pulled away with a grunt, refusing to look at her as a blush spread on his face, obvious even under his tanned skin. She knew it was her tenderness, her kindness that got to him the most.

She had to admit, she kind of liked it.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

His dark eyes met hers. “I told you, I’m fine. It’s not the first fight I lose.”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Warren.”

He smiled. She wasn’t going to let go of that, was she? “Apology accepted, hippie.”

She leaned in to kiss him again, this time with more passion, more  _ heat, _ pressing herself closer to him. He groaned against her mouth, running his fingers through her hair as he put his hand on her lower back possessively.

The kiss was brief though, because as soon as she opened her mouth against his, Warren pulled away, panting.

“Not now. Someone could come in.”

Layla sighed, but nodded. It had seemed like a good idea, at first, this secret relationship. She knew how much people could pry in someone else’s life when it was none of their business, and she wasn’t exactly impatient to hear people calling her a whore for being with someone other than Will.

She suspected that wasn’t Warren’s idea though, suspected that he didn’t want her facing accusations for being with him — school’s bad guy, villain in the making. She hoped he at least knew how much she didn’t care. One day, she would have to convince him about that.

Today wasn’t the day though.

She kissed him one last time, squeezed his hand gently, then slipped out of the room.

Warren watched her intently, then closed his eyes once she had gotten out. His throat almost didn’t hurt anymore, but that wasn’t all the healing Layla did on him. There was so much she was making  _ better _ just by being there. Just by accepting to be by his side.

He had no right to make her face any problem for being with him, he was well aware of that. But she made him  _ want _ to be selfish. So he would enjoy this as long as he could, as long as it lasted.

Until the inevitable moment when he would have to let go of her.

 

**Author's Note:**

> If everything goes as planned, I should write other one-shots in semi-continuity for this "Secret Relationship AU". Hope you've enjoyed this first one, it's been a while since I last wrote a fight scene and I hope it was alright!


End file.
